Hello #Mastodon - I need advice

Jinji the Gengar

@rufustheduck mastodon.social is basically the generic everyman server that everyone new to the Fediverse signs up to (mostly because it's ran by Mastodon themselves and is pushed by the official app), but this also means it's a firehose of thousands of people speaking all at once with no real sense of organisation or topic, which means it can get quite busy if you're following the Federated feed. Many people therefore suggest doing research into other Mastodon servers that are around, in case another one might be more structured to your specific interests, as you might find it more comfortable to follow, or easier to find others who share the same interests as you.

fedi.tips has a good explanation about the purpose of different servers in the Fediverse. fedi.garden is a good site to help you find a suitable server for you

Henrik Pauli

@rufustheduck An extra thing to what others raised about how to choose a new instance if you want to choose one: don't forget that you can have any number of accounts if you want.

Want to keep this as your main for cat pictures and whatever else, but you find a server specific to your interest in *shakes 8-ball* bread making? Can have both.

_maleficentgirl

@rufustheduck

also: how strict are they about things like Alt-text.

for example I'll never get on chaos.social because of how they formulated their guideline and there's lots of peeps on there who are very ... anal about this.
While I generally see the good of alt-text, I also see no reason to write "Sunrise" into the alt-text when the post already reads "Sunrise" every time I just wanna quickly post a pic of a sunrise and then have people whine at me that I'm not descriptive enough.

Mandy ❄️☃️

@rufustheduck I also joined your instance and had nothing against it but moved to cupoftea.social because it aligns with my values of positivity and wholesomeness.

So, if you find the local timeline meets your values, consider staying where you are. If not, ask your fedi-friends for instance recs that might align more closely to you

panda ♥️ 🇪🇺

@rufustheduck

if you don't know why to move, you're probably in the right spot.

You will know, when it's time to move.

e.g. if someone you like interacting with is blocked from mastodon.social, maybe not for a good reason, you could move.

another one: if you don't like policy changes of mastodon.social, you could move.

There's indefinite reasons, why someone would want to move. If you don't have a real reason to move, you don't have to

Robert Kingett

Because I didn't see this in the replies, this page has links that can help you find a place but take your time. Browse local timelines before moving. https://fedi.garden/fedi-gardens-full-server-list/ @rufustheduck

GinkelKarin 🇪🇺 🇺🇦🟥

@rufustheduck there's no right or wrong, as far as I'm concerned.

# got me started fine, and @FediTips

Erik L. Midtsveen 🏴🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸

@rufustheduck hi!

@FediTips have a great article on this, witch you can find here:

️ https://fedi.tips/its-a-really-bad-idea-to-join-a-big-server/

️ https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server/

Sparrows

@rufustheduck So, when email first started out, everyone used different servers, sometimes from their school, their job, their internet company, a dedicated email company, what have you.

Now everyone uses Gmail, and if you don't want to put all your eggs in one (heavily surveilled, monetized) basket, you avoid it personally. But you're going to be messaging people who are on Gmail most of the time, so you've gained little.

The advice to move is to preempt mastodon.social becoming that basket.

Sparrows

@rufustheduck That's the generic, big picture why.

Benefits of being on mastodon.social for you:

Biggest view of the fediverse, developers very much focused on your server, unlikely to shutdown, a 'little bit of everything' experience.

Downsides of staying:

Too big for thoughtful moderation, no particular relevance to any specific hobby or interest, too large for the local timeline to be anything other than a firehose of random conversation fragments.

fulanigirl

@rufustheduck The size of the server doesn't matter and it doesn't limit who you can interact with. But if you are feeling uncomfortable on it, check out fedi.tips, https://fedi.tips/, they have great guides for using Mastodon.

The Goddess Anoia

@fulanigirl @rufustheduck you say that but some servers have blocked others and some people block whole servers so it can do. But in the main with nice servers with good moderation you'll be fine. I have 4 accounts. You don't need to have multiple but there's nothing to stop you

jz.tusk

@KerryMitchell @zombie042 @rufustheduck

Thank you for posting this! I've been saying that I would love to browse the feeds of other servers, but I'd never found a way to do so. Maybe it's because I'm usually on my app (Tusky)?

Do you know if this /public/local is a standard feature of server's web interfaces?

James

@caiocgo *butts in* mastodon.social has a ton of problems exactly because it's the biggest server that is also barely moderated. It's twitter 3.0 and the source of many headaches for many admins because it's open sign-up and spouts endless russian bots, phishing attacks and spam accounts that rivals X. If you hear about spam and phishing problems on mastodon there's a 110% chance it comes from that instance. Rampant racism on top of everything. Many smaller instances decide to block it, restrict access to it or mute it. Which means a lot of the fediverse is shut out, which makes mastodon.social one of the least federated instances. It literally is a counter point to the whole idea of federating and the fediverse. Make of that what you will *sees myself out* @rufustheduck

Gary Blosser

@jztusk @KerryMitchell @rufustheduck The live feed can be shut off by the server owner but it is usually a default option left on. I'm unsure if servers allow those without a local account to view their public feed as I have never tried.

On my server's web interface it is under 'Live feeds' on the right-hand side and, as you noted, the usual URL is servername/public/local/

Note that there is also public/remote/ (posts that come from other servers) and just plain public/ for both local and remote posts.

Remote posts are -not- all posts from other servers though! It is only the posts someone on the server have subscribed to or been mentioned in and receive. So, for example, if someone on your server followed me then my public posts would show in your servers remote feeds (and it must be a public post, quiet public like this post do not hit the full public feeds).

🔞Anissa🔞

@rufustheduck
Your kitty is adorable 🥰

Caio C. G. Oliveira

@DrJLecter @rufustheduck hey Rufus, our colleague James has a very strong point here. I was not aware of other instances blocking mastodon.social

In my opinion blocking the largest instance sounds counterproductive. But hey, I am not an admin of a smaller instance and I am not aware of the issues related to being connected to mastodon.social.

So there it is.

For my part, I am really satisfied with social.vivaldi.net
It is a nice neighborhood.

contrasocial

@rufustheduck Think of instances like little territories, and they all have telephone lines connecting them. Each territory can be a different size and has its own admin and mods, and those admins can choose to close the phone lines to other instances if they don't like how they're run.

I haven't seen many issues on mastodon.social and I've seen no racism, but I do think some other instance owners/mods get upset because they have less influence, but also can't cut it off because of its size.

James

@caiocgo I love the Vivaldi browser and if I hadn't already joined a nice instance I probably would have gone to Vivaldi @rufustheduck

jz.tusk

@zombie042 @KerryMitchell @rufustheduck

I'll have to try it out if/when I switch.

And I hope most admins keep it on for the public. I can understand the security risks for those servers that aim for a bit more privacy, but for the people who say "you gotta pick a small server", I want to to at least take a peek at what the traffic there looks like before I put my account there.

Wandering Adventure Party

Hello #Mastodon - I need advice